Category Archives: Polling

A new Associated Press-GfK poll shows that the country is still very much divided over the question of the definition of marriage, especially regarding the inevitable collision with religious freedom and conscience rights that ensues whenever marriage is redefined.

While finding that Americans narrowly favor allowing gay and lesbian couples to legally marry, a new Associated Press-GfK poll also shows most believe wedding-related businesses should be allowed to deny service to same-sex couples for religious reasons.

Roughly half the country also thinks local officials and judges with religious objections ought to be exempt from any requirement that they issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples, according to the poll.

The article goes on to note that, "The poll found that 44 percent of Americans favor and 39 percent oppose legal same-sex marriage in their own states, while 15 percent expressed no opinion."

It is as likely as not that many of those 15% are people who would, in private conversation, say that they support traditional marriage, but who might be afraid of expressing that opinion to a pollster or any other stranger, given the very public examples of hostility and bullying we've seen targeted at individuals and companies that take such a position.

Bottom line: the debate over marriage is very much alive - a fact the Supreme Court would do well to bear in mind when it weighs in on the matter later this year.

By NOM Staff |Posted in Poll, Polling, Same Sex Marriage|Comments Off on New Poll Shows Strong Support for Traditional Marriage and Religious Liberty

[N]early three-quarters of Americans said religious influence in public life was waning and most saw that as a negative trend. About half of respondents said churches and houses of worship should speak out more on public issues.

Nearly half of all the respondents said businesses that provide services for weddings, such as florists, should be allowed to deny service to same-sex couples if the owners have religious objections. The Pew survey also found the percentage of people who consider gay relationships sinful had increased from 45 percent a year ago to 50 percent last month, although other surveys have found that people with religious objections don't always oppose legal recognition for gay relationships.

[...]

[Jessica Martinez, a researcher in Pew's Religion and Public Life Project] said the drop in support in the Pew poll was not driven by any particular religious or political group in the sample, but was a change across the board. Pew used similar groups of respondents in terms of political and religious views for both surveys, she said. The number of Americans who told Pew they were undecided on gay marriage increased from 7 percent in February to 10 percent last month.

According to the San Francisco Business Times, the survey "found that 80 percent of Americans overall consider love and commitment to be the most important reasons to get married, whereas just 54 percent of LGBT respondents said that those are the most important reasons to marry" [emphasis added].

Sixty-one percent of the LGBT respondents said the ability to make healthcare decisions for one's partner is the most important right or benefit of marriage. Fifty-eight percent of LGBT respondents said insurance and healthcare coverage was the most important and 56 percent said inheritance rights were the most important.

Interestingly, however, many states already have laws allowing same-sex couples to make healthcare decisions for each other; and in any case, this concern and others like it can be resolved through specific policies without redefining marriage.

It's also worth noting that federal regulations require hospitals participating in the Medicare and Medicaid programs to adopt written policies and procedures regarding patients’ visitation rights that allow hospital visitation for same-sex couples. In short, it is not necessary for marriage to be redefined in order to allow same-sex couples to visit each other in the hospital or make healthcare decisions for each other.As Ryan Anderson has pointed out, single people need to be visited in the hospital, too:

Specific policy changes can be made on matters like hospital visitation without redefining the institution of marriage. Marriage isn't simply an institution that exists to grant any two people who care about each other the right to visit each other in the hospital; it's an institution that connects children with their biological parents and ensures that they have the chance to grow up benefitting from the unique contributions of both a mother and a father. Marriage is an institution that reflects the complementary of the sexes and comprehensively unites husband and wife.

It is imprudent and unnecessary to redefine marriage simply to address matters like hospital visitation policies.

USA Today reported on May 28 that a new poll shows support for redefining marriage has dropped in Michigan.

The author notes that, "the pollster who conducted the survey says the result goes against the trend and may be a one-time change." It never seems to have occurred to the pollster to question the accuracy of previous polls or to compare the questioning employed in this poll with the earlier ones to try to analyze the difference.

In any case, these poll results don't surprise us. Overwhelmingly, in the majority of cases when voters have been given the opportunity to vote on marriage, they have expressed the view that marriage should be defined as the union of one man and one woman.

The poll, done May 17-20 exclusively for the Detroit Free Press, WXYZ-TV in Detroit and our statewide media polling partners by EPIC-MRA of Lansing, found that if a vote on allowing same-sex marriage in Michigan were held today, 47% would vote yes and 46% would vote no. The remaining 7% were either undecided or refused to say.

When EPIC-MRA asked Michiganders about same-sex marriage in May 2013, 51% said they supported it and 41% said they were opposed.

[...]

The shift in the poll numbers comes as residents await a federal appellate court ruling affecting about 300 gay couples who were married in March, when it was briefly legalized in Michigan — and many more of the state's same-sex couples who would like to do so.

[...]

On March 21, U.S. District Judge Bernard A. Friedman struck down Michigan's same-sex marriage ban as unconstitutional following a lawsuit brought by a lesbian couple alleging discriminatory adoption rules. Clerks in four Michigan counties opened their offices the next morning, allowing about 300 same-sex couples to marry before the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals stayed Friedman's order and halted the marriages later that day.

The case is now set for arguments before the 6th Circuit on Aug. 6 and could be headed for the U.S. Supreme Court.

A recent poll pushes back strongly against a recent 'wave' of mainstream media stories about how the GOP is supposedly abandoning its historical support for marriage between one man and one woman and that same-sex marriage is inevitable.

82 percent agreeing with a statement that marriage should be between “one man and one woman.” It also found 75 percent disagreed that “politicians should support the redefinition of marriage to include same-sex couples."

These results should send the same clear message to GOP leadership that NOM has been saying for years: “Marriage is a winning issue” with the rank-and-file republican base. They also echo the support NOM found for marriage after the 2012 elections in its own polling where 60 percent of voters indicated their support for marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Finally, it needs to be noted that in the four states that marriage was on the ballot in 2012, traditional marriage out-polled the Romney campaign by better than ten percentage points.

According to Haberman, “[Gary] Bauer, the president of American Values [one of the groups that commissioned the poll], faulted a “misinformation campaign waged by media elites” and insisted that “public policy-makers are doing a great disservice to themselves and future generations by continuing to misread the convictions of the American people … this survey should remind political and cultural leaders that this debate is far from over. If anything, it is taking on a new sense of urgency for millions of men and women of faith.”

A new survey by the Public Religion Research Institute shows that the majority of Ohio residents -- 51% -- do not support a measure to redefine marriage, as opposed to just 45% who would. While the Public Religion Research Institute describes itself as nonpartisan, the poll was funded by the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund, which actually promotes same-sex marriage advocacy.

Ohioans are split on the idea of gay marriage and, if the election were today, would not vote to overturn the state's ban on it, a new poll shows.

...when asked about a possible state constitutional amendment to repeal the one that banned gay marriage nearly a decade ago, 51 percent said they would not support the measure, compared with 45 percent who would. The findings seem to validate fears some gay rights groups in Ohio have about moving ahead with their ballot push in 2014.

When given the option to support civil unions, 41 percent favor gay marriage, 30 percent no recognition at all and 23 percent civil unions. But 68 percent – including 61 percent of Republicans – said they favor laws that protect gays from job discrimination.

We've heard a lot of stories recently about people of faith being forced to compromise their religious beliefs over same-sex marriage (bakery owners in Oregon, a florist in Washington state, innkeepers in Vermont...). But a new Rasmussen poll shows the vast majority of Americans are highly opposed to business owners being penalized or sued for running their business according to their own personal beliefs and values.

In fact, just 8% of the population answered "no" when asked the question "Suppose a Christian wedding photographer has deeply held religious beliefs opposing same-sex marriage. If asked to work a same-sex wedding ceremony, should that wedding photographer have the right to say no?"

More Republicans (96 percent) than Democrats (77 percent) agreed with the photographer's right to deny a gay wedding request. Ninety-seven percent of evangelical Christians and 92 percent of weekly churchgoers said the same. But even 88 percent of atheists agreed that the photographer has the right to say no.

This comes four months after the latest development in the famous Willock v. Elane Photography case, where Vanessa Willock and her partner, Misti Collinsworth, sued Christian couple Elaine and Jon Huguenin for this very denial in 2006. In 2008, the New Mexico Human Rights Commission found the Huguenins guilty of sexual discrimination, and the New Mexico Court of Appeals upheld this ruling last May.

The Alliance Defense Fund, which defended the Huguenins and their company, Elane Photography LLC, has taken their case to the New Mexico Supreme Court. The court heard ADF Senior Counsel Jordan Lorence's oral arguments on March 11. On Wednesday, an ADF spokesman told CP that "ADF attorneys are still waiting for the decision from the New Mexico Supreme Court." -Christian Post

Business owners and employees should never be threatened with legal action for abiding by the tenets of their faith. If you or anyone you know has been threatened, harassed, or intimidated because you believe in the truth about marriage, we want to hear your story. You are not alone.

When it comes to marriage polls, wording matters. This is something that same-sex marriage advocates are well-aware of, and we've seen them use it time and time again -- on polls and ballots alike -- in attempts to skew results in their favor.

Take a look at how Americans responded to two different questions on redefining marriage.

Would you approve or disapprove of changing the definition of the word marriage to also include same-sex couples?

39% Approve

56% Disapprove

5% Don’t Know

Do you favor or oppose legalizing same-sex marriage?

46% Favor

47% Opposed

7% Don’t Know

The first question, which makes clear that marriage would be redefined entirely to include same-sex couples, garnered just 39% support. 56% were opposed to the redefinition. But now take a look at the language of the second, shorter question. When asked if they were for or against legalizing same-sex marriage, the results were drastically different.

The U.S. Supreme Court finished its term with big decisions on voting rights, affirmative action and same-sex marriage. Following those rulings, public approval of the court has fallen to the lowest level ever recorded in more than nine years of polling.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 28% believe the Supreme Court is doing a good or an excellent job. At the same time, 30% rate its performance as poor. That’s the highest-ever poor rating. It’s also the first time ever that the poor ratings have topped the positive assessments. Thirty-nine percent (39%) give the court middling reviews and rate its performance as fair.

... Just prior to last week, 30% gave the court good or excellent marks. While the overall number fell only slightly following the final flurry of rulings, there were significant changes beneath the surface. Positive ratings increased among liberal voters by 13 points. However, they fell by eight points among conservatives and by seven among moderates.

To fill this void, we have worked with our allies at the Alliance Defending Freedom, the Family Research Council, and the National Organization for Marriage to produce an easy to read pamphlet to explain why marriage matters in everyday language. Download a free e-book version today at TheMarriageFacts.com.

Marriage is founded on the anthropological truth that men and women are different and complementary, the biological fact that the union of a man and woman also creates new life, and the social reality that children need a mom and a dad.

For decades, social science has shown that children tend to do best when reared by their married mother and father. Government recognizes marriage because it is an institution that benefits society in a way that no other relationship does.

Marriage is society’s least restrictive means to ensure the well-being of future citizens. It protects children by incentivizing adults to commit to each other and take responsibility for their children.

All the polls in the world cannot undo the truth about marriage. But they can obscure the truth and make it less likely that men and women commit to each other permanently and exclusively. This in turn reduces the odds that children will know the love and care of their married mothers and fathers.

Whatever pollsters and pundits may tell us about “inevitability,” the only way to guarantee a political loss is to sit idly by. We should frame our message, strengthen coalitions, devise strategies, and bear witness. (Heritage)

The Christian Institute reports that the Conservative Party in the UK is potentially facing huge losses in tomorrow's elections due to the Prime Minister's policies pushing same-sex marriage:

The ComRes poll, commissioned by the Coalition for Marriage, reveals that one in four of those who voted Conservative in 2010 say the policy is putting them off voting for the Party again.

Asked, “Does the Coalition Government’s plans to legalise same sex marriage make you more or less likely to vote for each of these parties in next week’s local elections?” 26 per cent of Conservative 2010 voters say less likely.

Fewer than one in ten (nine per cent) say they are more likely to vote Tory again because of gay marriage.

And 22 per cent of those polled said they were planning to vote for UKIP, which opposes gay marriage.

Fifty-three percent of Minnesotans say the state statute banning same-sex unions should stand. Only 38 percent say legislators should overturn the law this year, while 9 percent are undecided.

The new poll offers a fresh snapshot of an issue that has deeply divided the state. It was just five months ago that Minnesotans rejected a proposal to put the ban into the state’s Constitution. Legislators now are considering bills that would make gay marriage legal.

House Speaker Paul Thissen said he found the poll results surprising, with stronger opposition than has been seen in other samplings. (Star Tribune)

Forget the push polls offered by MSNBC and CNN claiming a clear majority support redefining marriage. We know from 34 actual state votes on marriage and scores of polling this is not true. A new national poll commissioned by Fox reflects the reality that redefining marriage is hardly a consensus or even a majority:

American voters are split down the middle over whether same-sex marriage should be legalized, with the exact same percentage -- 46 percent -- in favor as opposed to it, according to the latest Fox News poll
.
... Most Democrats (64 percent) are in favor, while most Republicans are opposed (66 percent). Independents are more likely to favor same-sex marriage, 50 percent to 39 percent.

On the other hand, voters who regularly attend church services oppose gay marriage (65 percent), while over half of those who attend less frequently are in favor (53 percent).